An American Angel in Hogwarts
by Cynder2013
Summary: Demons aren't the only danger to Midnight. When Hermione Granger goes looking for her sister, who went missing five years before, tracking her to Midnight, Texas can only bring trouble to the town, and the two fallen angels who make their home there. The Midnighters are a family, and they won't let anyone take one of their own. AU.
1. Prologue

_Prologue_

It was a curious person who didn't continue driving when the stoplight at the intersection of Witch Light Road and the Davy highway was green. The food at the Home Cookin Restaurant was nothing to talk about in those days, back before Madonna Reed got a hold of it, and if they weren't low on gas there was no other possible reason that anyone with an excuse to keep driving would even think about stopping in Midnight if they didn't have to.

The car that stopped when the traffic light was green was plenty curious already, being a black 1967 Chevrolet Impala that looked more like it belonged in a museum than on the road, but then a tiny girl with a broken arm came tumbling out of the front seat and crossed the road from the Home Cookin to the Antique Gallery and Nail Salon like she had been living in Midnight her entire life. The man who had driven the car, a white guy with blue eyes and a brown corduroy jacket, shook his head and went running after her.

The girl went straight into the Antique Gallery and Nail Salon after giving herself a shake on the threshold. The bell over the door rang, surprising Joe Strong and Chuy Villegas, the owners of the shop. They didn't see that the stoplight was green, but either way visitors don't normally come to the gallery and salon that quickly. Joe went to the front to see who it was and was immediately surprised again.

"Anne?" he asked without thinking. Then he corrected himself. "No, you're her daughter, aren't you?"

The girl nodded. She opened her mouth like she was going to say something, but swallowed and smiled nervously.

Joe turned his gaze on the man who'd followed the girl inside. He raised his hands and shook his head.

"I'm just the driver. The girl has some serious puppy eyes. I wasn't even going to come to Texas."

Chuy joined Joe at the front of the shop. He looked at the girl. Her arm was in a cast and there were bruises showing through rips in her t-shirt. Her hair and skin were covered with dirt. She carried nothing with her.

"How did you get here?" Chuy asked. The last they had heard of Anne's daughter she had been shipped off to live with a foster family in England.

"I ran away," the girl said, with a British accent never before heard in Midnight, "and I'm not going back."

* * *

A/n (mostly for people who read my other stories): Yes, this is a new story. Yes, I know I have three going already. Yes, I know that's bad. But plot bunnies. Since this is in a weird category, I won't be continuing it until A) I get my Sisters by the Styx series closer to finished (two and a half books left!) or B) Someone reads this and leaves a review asking me to continue right away. I have a bad habit of working on too many things at once though, so who knows if I'll be able to stick to this. I will try though.

-Cynder2013


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

 _Five years later_

Hermione Granger held a single blond hair between a pair of tweezers. It was embarrassing how long it had taken for her to make this potion. Three years with access to the largest library of magic in Britain and she hadn't found the recipe until second year, when she took out _Moste Potente Potions_ for the Polyjuice recipe. Then the whole getting petrified by a giant snake had happened, and she couldn't do the magic required out in the muggle world, so she was only getting around to making it now.

She had been supervised by Professor Sprout for the entire brewing process. The Hufflepuff Head of House and Herbology teacher was as amazing with potions as she was with plants, and she would have been a much better Potions teacher than Professor Snape, but magical flora was her first love. Hermione's time turner came in very handy since the only time Professor Sprout wasn't in one of her greenhouses was when Hermione had Ancient Runes and Divination.

Three weeks of weighing, chopping, boiling, pouring, and distilling later, Hermione was ready to perform the final step. It was this step that really earned this potion a place in _Moste Potente Potions_. The potion had been boiling all night and now if anything was off by just a second the whole potion could blow up in her face. There was a point to them being awake at four in the morning on a Saturday. Professor Sprout hovered over her shoulder with her wand at the ready.

Immediately after the potion stopped boiling in her cauldron, Hermione dropped the hair in, followed quickly by the Augurey feather quill that had taken her far too long to make. She stirred the potion with the quill, once straight north to south and then once east to west. The potion turned pure blue and the vapour rising from it became shimmering green, just like the book said they would.

Using her right hand, Hermione took the quill out of the potion and placed it point first on the sheet of parchment she had ready. The quill quivered for a moment before it began writing ever so slowly on the parchment.

Hermione held her breath. That wasn't one of the instructions in the book, but it actually couldn't hurt.

 _M_ , the quill wrote, _I-D-N-I-G-H-T T-E-X-A-S_.

As soon as the quill wrote the final S it fell towards the top of the parchment and went still. Hermione read the two blue words its brief animation had left behind.

Midnight. Texas.

For possibly the first time in her life, Hermione Jean Granger was utterly confused.

* * *

Four thousand six hundred eight miles and six time zones away, another teenage girl was busy making a potion. She squinted at the recipe that her friend and mentor, Fiji Cavanaugh, had photocopied for her. It was a simple potion to help with sleep, more like a tea than anything else, but the girl had never quite gotten used to reading Mildred Loeffler's handwriting, even when Fiji's great-aunt had been alive. She sighed, looked at the clock, and decided to put it off until tomorrow. 10PM was a late night for her. As she left the kitchen, the hoots and hollers that had been echoing through the town of Midnight for the last while got closer to the Antique Gallery and Nail Salon, and the apartment above it.

Chuy looked up from his book. "So, whose turn is it to go chase them off?"

The girl answered that question by picking up the baseball bat waiting by the door.

"Heather," Joe warned, "be careful."

"I'll be fine, Joe," Heather said. "They're kids from school, not Sons of Lucifer. Besides, it's traditional, isn't it?"

Heather laughed as she went out the door. Joe and Chuy rolled their eyes and shook their heads. Teenagers, they were thinking. Rasta, their little Pekingese dog, barked and the two men turned their attention to petting their most demanding family member.

The stairs on the back of the building creaked as Heather went down them. The night was warm and the moon wasn't quite full, so she didn't mind the lack of internal stairs from the apartment to the shop. It got a bit annoying in winter though.

The group of teenagers standing in front of the building were laughing and pushing each other closer. The three boys at the head of the group were shaking cans of spray paint and making jokes about what they would write. Heather could feel that none of them were actually all that scared. Sure, they were in Midnight, but the Antique Gallery and Nail Salon was a soft target with just enough risk of getting caught without the possibility of getting cursed by the witch or shot with one of the guns in the pawn shop. They had probably gone and vandalized the Rev's pet cemetery already, like they had every weekend since school started. Davy high school hazing rituals were awfully repetitive.

When Heather walked around to the front of the shop the emotions coming from her classmates changed. She felt annoyance, a little more excitement, a little more fear and, ew, _lust_. She did not want to know who that last one was coming from.

The shortest of the three boys bared his teeth. "What do you want, freak?"

"Does your mom know you're out this late, Jem Tanner?" Heather asked sweetly. "You're trespassing. Go home."

Jem Tanner and his two spray paint buddies laughed and elbowed each other. "Welcome, minor niners, to the Midnight Freak Show," the tallest boy announced, gesturing towards Heather.

Heather raised the baseball bat. "Go home, or I start breaking kneecaps."

The ninth graders went silent. Heather felt a lot more fear from them. The laughter of the older students, the three boys and two girls, became more strained.

"I would listen to the girl if I were you," a familiar voice said from behind the group of teenagers.

The students all turned around, some more quickly than others, and their fear spiked. There were staggered screams.

Lemuel smiled slowly. His eerie eyes darted from face to face. Before anyone could even blink he ran and stopped beside Heather. Heather laughed quietly.

"Then again, I'm not you," Lemuel said.

The students all turned around again and screamed. They were so terrified that Heather felt her own heart rate increase.

"Get out," Lemuel said slowly.

The grade nines were the first to start running, then the girls and the spray paint boys. Jem Tanner threw one last, "Freaks!" at Heather and Lemuel before running after his friends. Heather watched as the Davy kids ran to the cars that they had come in, practically climbed over each other to get inside, and went driving down the Davy highway as fast as they could, running a red light at the crossroads as they went.

Heather looked over at Lemuel. The vampire was staring after the Davy kids with a blank look on his face. His fangs were poking out from under his top lip. Heather couldn't feel whatever he was feeling; her powers didn't work on vampires. Lemuel was the only vampire she had ever met though.

"I was handling it, Uncle Lem," she said.

Lem looked at her and smiled. "Of course you were, Heather. I was just speeding things along a little."

Heather pretended to pout. In actuality, she knew he was right. It always took her way too long to annoy the Davy kids enough for them to leave. Her lack of height and muscles meant they did not take her threats seriously.

Lem chuckled. "Goodnight, Heather."

"Goodnight, Uncle Lem."

"Sweet dreams," Lem said, before running faster than she could see back to his shift at Midnight Pawn.

Heather swung the baseball bat over her shoulder and went back up to the apartment. "Goodnight, Dads," she said as she passed Joe and Chuy on the way to her room.

"Any trouble?" Chuy asked.

Heather shook her head. "Uncle Lem took care of it."

All was quiet in Midnight, Texas.

* * *

A/n: Hello, people who are actually reading this! Since it seems that I'm not writing this story just for myself, the warning should be issued that I'm not following exactly the _Midnight, Texas_ books or the TV show. It's going to be more of a mixture of both, and I won't be hugely spoilering either of them (so those of you who haven't read the books yet don't have to worry too much. I recommend the books, by the way. They're fun, just please don't read them if you're not, like, at least sixteen. Maybe seventeen). This does mean that there will be characters who appear just in the book, like Rasta, and some characters will look different than they do on the TV show, like Manfred (his appearance in the book is so much fun that I can't not use it). Characters that I don't describe could look like they do in the book, like they do on the show, or like they look in your fan art, it doesn't matter as long as it works for you. The Harry Potter books will be spoiled but I don't think it's possible to keep secrets about Harry Potter so...yeah.

-Cynder2013


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Heather was woken up on Saturday by the sound of a vehicle driving past. She rolled over, pulled her blankets over her head, and went back to sleep.

The second time she was woken up, Chuy knocked on her bedroom door. "It's almost twelve, darling."

It wasn't until Heather had jumped out of bed, tossed clothes out of her dresser, and started combing her hair that she looked at her clock and saw that it was barely ten past eleven. "Chuy!" she complained.

Chuy chuckled. "I didn't think you wanted to sleep though the whole morning."

Heather grumbled. Sleeping the whole morning sounded fine by her.

She had just enough time to take a shower and start her homework before Fiji called to invite her over for breakfast. Well, Fiji called it lunch but they both knew that for Heather it was really breakfast. Heather popped her head into the shop and motioned to Chuy, who was doing the nails of a non-Midnighter customer, that she was going out. He nodded once and she was out the door before the customer could turn around to see what he was looking at.

Mr. Snuggly, Fiji's cat, meowed loudly when Heather walked into The Inquiring Mind. "I'll be with you in a minute!" Fiji called from the back of her house.

Heather bent down to scratch Mr. Snuggly behind the ears. "It's just me, Fiji."

Mr. Snuggly purred. He quite approved of Heather. She brought him leftover chicken every Tuesday when she and her dads were tired of the Sunday roast, and she never let the dog touch any of it. The guard cat allowed Heather to enter the back of the house where he and Fiji lived. The living room across the front of the building was taken up by The Inquiring Mind, Fiji's witchcraft/spiritual store where she held classes every Thursday.

Fiji looked up from her table setting and smiled at Heather. Her hair was curled prettily and pulled back from her face with the rhinestone headband that Heather had given her last Christmas/Yule. She was wearing The Dress that both Heather and Olivia, the only other female in Midnight aside from Madonna and Creek Lovell, agreed looked the best on her out of everything in her wardrobe.

"Heather! It's good to see you," Fiji said. "How's school?"

"School is school." Heather grimaced. She didn't know if it was because she had skipped a grade or because school started at the end of August, but the amount of homework they had been given seemed ridiculous.

The table had been set for three people. Since Mr. Snuggly didn't sit at the table, though not for lack of trying, there was only one other person who could reliably be found eating lunch at Fiji's.

"Do you want me to do your make-up before Bobo gets here?" Heather asked.

Fiji let out a yelp and dropped the plate she was holding, which luckily landed on the table and didn't break. "Do I need make-up?"

"No, no," Heather laughed, "you never need make-up, Fiji. Besides, you're already all dressed up, make-up would be overkill."

Fiji breathed a sigh of relief and her sudden spike of panic died down. "I look alright?"

"Of course you do." Heather passed Fiji the last plate from the kitchen counter. "But why did you invite me?"

Fiji frowned. "Why wouldn't I invite you?"

"Because you invited Bobo," Heather said slowly. "You know, the guy who you've had a massive crush on since forever? Don't tell me that you invited him and then chickened out and called me."

"I didn't chicken out," Fiji muttered.

"You're wearing The Dress," Heather said flatly. Fiji had definitely chickened out.

Before Fiji could come up with any argument, Mr. Snuggly signaled the arrival of another person in the store. "I'll be with you in a minute," Fiji called.

Mr. Snuggly once again saved Fiji from leaving the room by providing a meowing escort for Bobo. Bobo owned Midnight Pawn and ran the shop during the day shift. He was tied with Lem for being the most conventionally handsome man in Midnight, if Lem's eyes were left out of the equation. He wasn't Heather's type, and was two decades too old for her, but she could see why Fiji was attracted to him, his personality notwithstanding.

"I've got news," Bobo said with a grin.

Heather wondered if that news was about Aubrey. She hadn't seen Bobo smile that widely since before his fiancé had walked out on him. Aubrey wasn't the nicest person, but the Midnighters put up with her for Bobo's sake. With her gone everyone in Midnight except for Bobo was a lot happier.

"You can tell us after we've started eating," Fiji told Bobo. "Sit down, both of you."

Bobo and Heather sat down with Heather making sure that Bobo and Fiji would be sitting directly beside each other. Mr. Snuggly took his usual place under the table where they would all have to be careful not to kick him for fear of getting his claws in their leg. Fiji dished out the cheese and vegetable omelettes she had made for each of them that had been keeping warm in the oven. The side dish was bacon wrapped asparagus and there was an apple pie for dessert, all homemade.

"You do realise that you could put Madonna out of business, right?" Bobo asked.

Fiji laughed and the joy she was feeling made Heather grin.

"So, news?" Heather asked Bobo

Bobo put down his knife and fork. "I have a renter for the house. He's moving in on Tuesday."

Fiji and Heather exclaimed and congratulated. Bobo had been advertising to rent out the house that he'd bought with the pawn shop for years. It was exciting to be getting a new resident.

Heather grinned. "That's great news! What do you know about him?"

"Not much," Bobo admitted. "It's just him. He'll be driving himself up Tuesday morning. He's planning to work from home. His money's clean and he's a warm body, that's all I care about."

"You're no fun," Heather complained.

Bobo pointed at Heather with his fork. "That's what we have you for. You are the only here with blue hair."

He was teasing. Heather rolled her eyes when she felt Bobo's amusement. Well, at least he wasn't all sad anymore.

"You'll get to meet him for yourself when he gets here on Tuesday," Fiji said to Heather.

Heather nodded briefly before realizing something. "I'll be at school when he gets here."

"Oh, don't worry," Bobo said. "We'll tell him all about you. Have you gotten that wind spell working yet?"

Heather's eyes narrowed. The spell that Bobo was talking about was actually a flight spell that used the air as support. Heather really wanted to learn it, but the first time it actually did anything a gust of wind had sent her tumbling down Witch Light Road and into a collision with the Rev as he stepped out of the wedding chapel. Bobo had been right across the street at the pawn shop with a full view of the incident.

"You wouldn't," Heather said threateningly.

Bobo grinned and continued to feel amused.

Heather scowled. "Bobo!"

Fiji laughed to herself before turning her concentration to stopping her younger guest from murdering the other.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Tuesday sucked. Heather's only friend, Marina Desoto, had called before Heather left for school to tell her that the stomach ache she had on Monday was appendicitis and she would be in the hospital until further notice. Heather wished her a speedy recovery and, as she hung up the phone, resigned herself to being tripped at school at least once. She and Marina usually watched each other's backs, though Marina wasn't targeted as badly as Heather was since she wasn't an actual Midnighter, just friends with one.

Among other horrors, in French class they had to do a group reading presentation thing that had to be ready for the last half hour of class. Heather's group's was a total flop because none of them would talk to her except to give her the part with the most lines. Their teacher just looked at them over her glasses and wrote something down that had to be an F. For the millionth time, Heather wished that Chuy hadn't said that he could just teach her Spanish and she was better off taking another language. Then again, the people in that class would have been just as bad.

By the time Joe came to drive her home, Heather was desperate for any good news.

"Has the new guy moved in yet?" she asked as she climbed into the passenger seat.

Joe nodded. "Drove in while I was walking Rasta. Bobo and I helped him move boxes."

"What's he like? What's his name? How many boxes did he have? Does he like dogs? How old is he? What's his job? Does Fiji like him?"

"Whoa, slow down," Joe chuckled. "He's a good guy, a bit rough around the edges, but a good heart. Chuy and I warned him we'd send you around to pester him when he's a bit more settled in."

Joe turned onto the Davy highway. Heather waited. When Joe started whistling, she said, "You've still got six questions to answer."

"Manfred Bernardo, I didn't count, looks like, didn't ask but he looks about twenty, not sure, don't think she's met him yet." Joe rattled off each answer without missing a beat.

In other words, Manfred was too new to know anything about him. This was the point where the internet became either very helpful or utterly useless.

In this case, the internet was very helpful. Manfred Bernardo was apparently a professional psychic and less than half an hour of searching turned up a Facebook page and, after using an image search, a website. Manfred's picture was very distracting—he was _so_ her type—but Heather tore herself away and read through his posts and the information on his website. The biography on the website for "Bernardo, Psychic and Seer" was deemed probably fake after skimming it for a minute, but she would keep it in mind. It would be interesting to not be the only psychic in Midnight anymore.

On Thursday before Fiji's 7PM class, Heather finally got a chance to swing by Manfred's house. There was a blue RV in front of the house with an extra set of tire tracks in the dirt behind it from the U-Haul cargo trailer that had been hitched to it that morning and had probably been returned while Heather was at school. Heather walked past the RV without trying to look through the windows to see if Manfred was inside. The new source of contentment and amusement she was feeling wasn't that close to her.

Manfred opened the door a few seconds after Heather knocked. His platinum blond hair was standing on end like he had just raked his fingers through it, and it looked like he had added more rings to his eyebrow since his profile picture had been taken. He was wearing a black T-shirt that showed off the tattoos he had on his arms.

Damn it, he was way too her type. She had to remember that, according to her research, he was somewhere between twenty-two and twenty-five years old and that she had two dads who would tear him to shreds if they started anything.

"Hi," Manfred said. "I assume you're one of my neighbors?"

Heather smiled. "Yup, Heather Strong. I'm Joe and Chuy's daughter."

Manfred nodded. "Nice to meet you. I'd shake your hand but..."

Heather held up the plastic container filled with cookies. "I'm sure Fiji will bring cookies over if she hasn't already, but you can never have too many cookies. And they're chocolate chip, which I've been assured most people like."

Slight confusion came from Manfred. "You don't like chocolate chip cookies?"

"I don't like chocolate," Heather said.

Manfred's confusion was replaced with surprise. "You don't like chocolate?"

"I don't like chocolate," Heather repeated. "Cookies?"

Manfred chuckled and reached out to take the container from her. Their fingers touched. Immediately it was like a flash-bang grenade had been set off inside Heather's head. She stumbled backwards and fell down onto the porch, holding her head. Manfred caught himself on the doorframe before gravity could do the same thing to him.

It took a while for the pain to die down enough to be able to think, let alone speak. Once it did the first thing Manfred did was let out a string of curses while Heather less articulately said, "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow."

Manfred stumbled inside. Thanks to the fairly open layout of the house, Heather was able to see him open a bottle of pills and take at least one before he looked at her through the open door.

"What the hell was that?" he asked.

Heather crawled to the door. Miraculously, the container of cookies sat unharmed on the threshold and she picked it up before she used the doorframe to pull herself to her feet. "I was sort of hoping you knew."

Manfred shook his head helplessly. Heather took a few unsteady steps inside and concentrated on not falling flat on her face rather than Manfred's annoyance. Her legs felt less like they had been turned into water by the time she reached the kitchen. She placed the cookies on the counter next to Manfred's pill bottle.

"Are you actually psychic?" Heather asked.

Manfred felt surprised. If he had learned anything about Midnight in the short time he had been there, he probably hadn't been expecting any Midnighters to ask personal questions. The psychic thing was all over the internet though. It would be weirder not to ask about it. At least, that was what Heather thought.

"I'm an empath," Heather offered.

Manfred looked at something over her shoulder. "Medium, mostly," he said shortly.

"Like, ghosts?"

Manfred nodded. He bit his lip. "Uh, your mom says that she loves you and she's sorry."

Heather swallowed. Her legs were water again and she gripped the counter to keep herself upright. It took a while before she was able to reply.

"Thank you," she said quietly. "Is...is she here?"

"Yeah," Manfred said, "she's here."

Heather didn't know what to say, so she changed the subject. "Do you always see ghosts?"

Manfred didn't feel angry after she asked the question, but he took a few moments to respond. "Always, especially if they want to be seen. What about you? Do you always...feel what people are feeling?"

"All my life," Heather said. "And some touch psychometry, lately."

'Lately' was an exaggeration. She hadn't gotten anything by touch since Olivia moved to Midnight a few years ago. Olivia had secrets—who in Midnight didn't?—but at heart she was one of the good guys.

They talked for a few more minutes about psychic powers (neither of them had ever met anyone who could do automatic writing for real) before Heather idly looked at the clock and saw that it was two minutes before Fiji's class started. She asked Manfred if he wanted to come with.

He nodded towards the laptop computer sitting on the table at the front of the house. "I think I'm going to try to get a bit more work done before I call it a night."

"Okay, see you on Saturday."

"Saturday?" Manfred asked.

"The picnic," Heather said. Manfred's confusion didn't go away. "Didn't anyone tell you about the picnic? Don't answer that. Obviously no one told you about the picnic. Annual Midnighters' Fall Picnic. You're going. Come to Madonna's at nine on Saturday morning and we'll drive you up."

Manfred blinked, surprised. "But-"

"You're. Going," Heather said. "You're a Midnighter now."

Manfred gave a small smile. How could he argue against that? "Okay. I'll be there."

"Good." Heather walked to the door and threw an, "Enjoy the cookies," over her shoulder as she left.

* * *

A/n: Hermione will have her say next chapter, promise.

-Cynder


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

By the time Hermione woke up all four of her roommates were already ready to go down to breakfast, even Lavender Brown, who took more than an hour to get ready each morning. Fay Dunbar had literally shaken her awake, shoved her clothes into her arms, and pushed her into the washroom. She made it to the Great Hall only five minutes before the nearly empty serving trays started to disappear. Unsurprisingly, Ron was still eating at that point.

"Ood 'orning," Ron said when Hermione went to join him and Harry. Hermione wrinkled her nose but didn't bother to actually say anything. After four years she had finally given up on nagging Ron about talking with food in his mouth. It was one thing he never listened to her about.

"We're going to go visit Hagrid," Harry said when Hermione was close to finishing her breakfast. "Are you coming?"

"Oh, no." Hermione shook her head. "I have to go to the library." She hadn't had time to look into what 'Midnight Texas' meant all week. She had weeded out a few books last Sunday but she still had the rest of the library to go through.

"Come on, Hermione," Harry wheedled. "It's Hagrid. You don't have to study all the time."

Hermione swallowed her last bite of food and jumped up from the table. "Sorry!"

It was still early enough that there were only a handful of students in the library. Hermione headed straight for the shelf where she had left off on Sunday and took down the next book. Two hours later the library was filling up and she still had nothing to show for her time aside from ruling out that 'Midnight Texas' had anything to do with a plant. She moved on to the next section. A group of sixth-years was blocking the first three bookcases and there was no way she would be able to force her way through them. Scowling at how inconsiderate the older students were being, Hermione skipped over those shelves and went to the next row of bookcases. These bookcases were clustered at the back of the library and covered in enough dust to show that they were chronically underused; even Madam Pince didn't make it back to them very often.

The first book that Hermione picked up was a thin volume on magical plants of North America. She had that back on the self in a second and moved on to the next book. The second book was about astronomy and the weather, and had a section about phenomena that affected magic. It included the midnight sun in the Arctic and something called "bayous" in Louisiana that Hermione would have looked up in a dictionary if such a thing existed in the magical world. There was nothing about Texas though, so after paging through it a few more times she put the book back.

With the third book, Hermione struck gold. At first it seemed as unhelpful as everything else she'd looked at, but after the first few pages of definitions it went into sites of mystical convergence in North America. They were sometimes called Hellmouths or crossroads but were most correctly recognized as places where multiple ley lines overlapped. There was one in Cleveland, Ohio that seemed to attract Class XXXX creatures and another somewhere in the state of Virginia where the Welsh wizard king Owain Glyndŵr was suspended in time. Finally, Hermione found a town in Texas where two ley lines crossed and provided a minor boost to magical power.

It was called Midnight.

Hermione grinned. Midnight, Texas. That had to be what the quill had written. Her sister was in Midnight.

Now Hermione just needed to get there.

* * *

Heather, Joe, Chuy, Manfred, and Rasta got to the picnic site early. Joe helped Bobo and Madonna's husband Teacher get the grill set up while Chuy and Madonna set up the tables. Heather and Manfred got the two jobs that were easiest and hardest, respectively: unloading the food and controlling Rasta. By the time the picnic was laid out (no thanks to Rasta), Fiji, Olivia and the Lovells had all arrived along with the farm families who lived strung out along Witch Light Road. The only people missing were the Rev, who preferred to avoid crowds, and Lem, who obviously couldn't go out during the day.

While Bobo and Teacher started grilling the hot dogs, hamburgers, and the vegetable kebabs Madonna had prepared, Heather left Rasta with Chuy and went to join Olivia and Fiji by the drinks table. Fiji didn't even notice.

"You have been spending a lot of time staring," Olivia said to Fiji with a smirk on her face.

"I'm not staring," Fiji insisted while not once looking away from Bobo. "I'm admiring his grilling technique."

Heather sighed. "Can't you just ask him out on a date already? You like him and he likes you."

Fiji finally took a break from admiring Bobo's grilling technique and looked at Heather with wide eyes. "He does?"

Heather rolled her eyes when she felt Fiji's surprise. She couldn't be the only one who knew that Bobo _liked_ liked Fiji. It was totally obvious even without psychic powers...right?

"Aubrey has been gone long enough," Olivia declared. "You can help him get over her."

A warmth rose in Heather's stomach, probably an echo of whatever Fiji was feeling. Her emotions had turned into a confusing mixture that Heather couldn't quite take apart. There was some happiness, a little flash of shame, but naming everything that Fiji was feeling with so many other people around was impossible. It was actually starting to make Heather feel a little sick.

"Olivia, have you met Manfred yet?" Heather asked, trying to change the subject.

"The new guy?" Olivia frowned. For a second she looked over at where Manfred was talking with Creek Lovell. "Ran into him outside the pawn shop. He seems kind of shady to me."

Heather prepared to jump to Manfred's defense, but Fiji beat her to it.

"He can't be all bad," Fiji said. "I made him cookies. If he'd been here to cause trouble he'd be tossing those cookies right now."

Heather frowned. "I don't know that spell. Why don't I know that spell?"

Olivia smirked. "Because you are still a kid and have to go to school with people who hate this town."

"Like they'd eat anything I made," Heather grumbled.

The three of them continued talking for a bit before Chuy came by and handed Heather Rasta's leash. "We're starting a soccer game with some of the farm guys," he told them. Heather nodded and told him to have fun. Soccer wasn't really her sport.

As Chuy walked away, the wind changed and Heather's hair blew straight into her face. While she was preoccupied with trying not to eat hair dye, Rasta started pulling at his leash and barking. "Rasta, quiet!" Rasta kept barking.

Heather shook her head and finally managed to get her hair off her face. "Rasta, what do you want?"

"He's trying to go to the river," Fiji noticed.

Heather let Rasta pull her along while the three of them followed the dog to the top of the hill that led down to the river. She stopped him short and stared at the sight down below. Fiji screamed.

The other picnickers dropped what they were doing. Heather felt a tsunami of shock and panic as everyone saw the bloated, rotting body lying under a cloud of flies by the edge of the river. Someone behind her caught her by the arm as her legs tried to collapse under her but she couldn't tear her eyes away from the body to see who.

Joe and Bobo climbed down to the river. Heather felt a stab of sadness coming from Bobo as they got closer to the body that all but confirmed what she was thinking. The body had to be Aubrey. In fact, Connor Lovell was saying just that in a one-sided conversation that must mean he had called the police.

Olivia grumbled under the cover of Connor's phone call and the mumbled conversations everyone else was having. "Even dead the bitch is trouble."


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The police officers had to drive in from Davy. The wait gave all of them time to calm down, especially Bobo and Heather. Heather somehow managed to ride out everyone else's emotions without actually passing out, but it came close. She lay down in the bed of Teacher and Madonna's truck with Rasta cuddled up against her and the old shirt she had been wearing over her tank top bundled under her head while she waited for the world to stop spinning.

Heather stayed in the truck bed while the police swarmed the area like ants. Rasta kept barking at them and she had to keep him under control. It wouldn't win Midnight any favours if Rasta bit someone. After a while, one of the police officers came to talk to her. The officer was a woman who had little patience for Midnighters. Heather got out something about yes she had seen the body and yes she was sure it was Aubrey Hamilton before the officer got tired of talking to a freaky kid with a noisy dog.

"The Sheriff will be coming around to take statements," she grumbled. "Don't leave town without his permission."

"I have school on Monday," Heather called after her. The officer's reply was something along the lines of "not my problem." Charming.

"Okay folks, let's get this packed up," Madonna said once the police were (bored/annoyed/less freaked out) done with them. "We'll divide it up at the restaurant, no point letting all this food go to waste."

As they were driving back into town, Heather had to deal with three grown men worrying over her like mother hens. Well, Manfred wasn't that bad, he just asked her once if she was feeling alright and then kept a slightly close eye on her for the rest of the drive. Her dads were a different story. Joe kept taking his eyes off the road and calmed down dramatically every time he saw that she was alright. Chuy was a mess of worry, fear and guilt, and he asked if she was sure she was feeling alright every few seconds.

"Dads," she exclaimed a few minutes in, "chill! I'm fine. I am not in shock or having a nervous breakdown, there were just a lot of people freaking out at the same time. I'm fine."

Joe and Chuy looked at each other and Heather stifled a groan. They obviously didn't believe her.

They divided up the huge amount of food that was left over at the Home Cookin and Heather put Rasta's leash back on to walk him the short distance home. Once they got there her dads put away the food while Heather set Rasta loose in the apartment and went to get a box.

The wooden trunk that Heather kept in the corner of her room was filled with wood and another box filled with knives. She pulled out a pine branch that she'd found at school and started carving. Curls of wood fell around her feet. Over the next few weeks, the branch slowly transformed into a tall, thin angel with yellow hair and pale grey wings. It was Heather's typical worry project, and with the police and the Sons of Lucifer circling in on Midnight she had plenty to worry about.

The day after the picnic, Olivia called to warn them that the Sheriff was in town asking questions. She and Fiji had already given Bobo an alibi, so after a quick family meeting Joe and Chuy told Heather that she could answer any questions that the Sheriff asked her truthfully. Heather wasn't even in Midnight on the day that Aubrey had disappeared (she and Marina had gone window shopping after attending the funeral for Creek's dog so that Marina could get out of her house) so he probably wouldn't have many questions for her anyway.

A few minutes after the call, Chuy called Heather downstairs to the store to talk to the Sheriff. As predicted, the Sheriff didn't have much to ask Heather about. There was yes she had seen Aubrey on the day she disappeared (true) and yes Bobo was supposed to be out of town on that day (true) and no Bobo was a great guy (true) who could never kill anyone (false), and then the Sheriff told her that if she remembered anything that might help the investigation then she should have her dads call it in. He didn't feel very hopeful when he said that, but there was a little bit of hope. He didn't seem to be totally writing her off just because she was a kid.

The Sheriff crossed over to the other side of the street after he left the Antique Gallery and Nail Salon. Heather watched from her bedroom window as he knocked on the door of the Rev's house and then, when he didn't get an answer, moved on to the Home Cookin. Heather waited the half hour or so that he spent in the restaurant before going back to her wood carving after he walked past the defunct hotel towards the wedding chapel.

Midnight was quiet for several hours after the Sheriff's visit. There weren't any customers at the nail salon or the antiques store, so Joe and Chuy closed up early and came upstairs to make dinner. Heather offered to help, but after the second time she burnt the food so badly that there was nothing but black tar left in the bottom of the pot Joe told her that it would be better if she just set the table before they ran out of food for her to burn. He and Chuy both felt worried, and as Heather turned to get the plates they shared a concerned look that she didn't quite miss seeing.

Heather hid a frown behind the cupboard door. They didn't have to worry about her, she was fine. She was totally fine. Sure she had nearly passed out at the picnic—which was something that would never have happened a few weeks ago even with that many people all freaking out at the same time—but her eyes hadn't started bleeding or anything like that. And sure her powers seemed stronger (she could feel Madonna and Teacher's stress, worry, and annoyance from across the street) but maybe that was a normal thing for a teenage psychic. She'd talk to Manfred about it tomorrow and then she could get her dads to stop worrying with a solid argument.

The sun finished setting a few minutes after Heather started setting the table. It wasn't dark for long before the sound of a police siren coming from the direction of Davy grew louder and louder. Heather looked out the window of the living/dining room and saw the lights of the police car down by the pawn shop. "Dads?"

Joe and Chuy went to look out the window too. "Damn," Joe said after a moment. "We'd better go see what that is."

Heather ran outside after her dads once she'd taken the pots off the stove. They hadn't said that she wasn't allowed to go with them, just that someone had to watch the stove. She caught up to them just past the Gas n' Go at the intersection. Everyone else in town was also outside, heading straight for the stopped police car.

Creek and Manfred were already standing in front of the pawn shop. "What's happening?" Heather asked Creek.

"They're trying to arrest Bobo!" Creek said angrily.

The Midnighters formed an unpassable crowd in front of the police car. Rage burned through the air.

"Back off!" the police officer who'd interviewed Heather ordered. She raised her gun in the air.

"Everybody go home!" the Sheriff said.

Fiji rounded on the two police officers. "He didn't kill her! He loved her, more than she deserved!"

The Sheriff gave the other officer a look (it said something like "Don't rile up the locals") and she slowly put her gun away.

"We've identified the murder weapon and it belongs to him." The Sheriff spoke directly to Fiji but raised his voice loud enough that everyone could hear him. He seemed to be doing his best to project an aura of calm but Heather could feel the fear twisting his guts. The Sheriff was a good man, but in the dark he still feared Midnight.

Heather took a few steps forward, joining her dads in standing shoulder to shoulder with Fiji, Creek, Manfred, and the rest of Midnight as Lem spoke to the Sheriff in a low voice. The entire population of Midnight plus several farmers who had come into town as a show of support formed a semi-circle in front of the police car, blocking its every possible exit route. The fear from the police officers spiked.

"Clear the road!" the Sheriff ordered. "Go home!"

"We're not going anywhere," Madonna said, loudly and firmly. The farmers and the rest of Midnight agreed. Even the Rev, standing between Fiji and Olivia, let out a low growl that Heather felt vibrating in her chest.

"Clear the road," the Sheriff said, less firmly than he had before. "Go home." He and the other officer climbed into their car and slammed the doors behind them.

Then Fiji raised her hands. Heather grabbed Chuy's hand and held on for dear life as she felt the magic gathering, a blistering sandstorm of will fueled by rage. The hood of the police car began crumpling like a coke can. The shouts of the police officers could just barely be heard from inside the car.

The car rose into the air. Heather looked and saw Fiji's face contorted with the effort. Her eyes were glowing red. This was pure, unfiltered magic, raw will being imposed on the world.

The Rev tilted his head and spoke softly to Fiji. Whatever he said made Fiji's rage die down just a little.

"We've got to be smart about this, Fij," Olivia hissed, "not angry."

Heather felt a wave of compassion that she knew came from Manfred just before he said, "I'll help. I'll help any way I can." He paused. "And I think I can."

Fiji gasped and the magic vanished. The hood of the car popped back into shape and its siren let out a feeble whoop as it fell the half foot to the ground. Heather let go of Chuy's hand.

Everyone wordlessly stepped out of the car's path and watched as it drove away with Bobo in the back seat.

Olivia looked at Manfred grimly. "You'd better be able to help."

* * *

A/n: Lots of notes for this one. First, for anyone a bit confused about the directions, I'm using the map of Midnight from the books to lay everything out. If you search for "Midnight Texas map" or something like that then it's the one that's colourful squares that someone made on their computer, or you can look for previews of the second and third books and there'll be a nicely drawn one at the start.

Second, the last bit of this chapter played out like it did in the TV show. Most of the dialogue after they arrive at the police car is from the show. However, I would like to remind people that I'm using the books a lot so not everything will be the same as the show. For instance, "Bad Moon Rising" isn't going to happen in full next (even though I think that episode is awesome) because the moon related part doesn't happen in the books until a year or so after Manfred comes to Midnight.

Thanks for reading!

Cynder2013


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Going to school after what happened that weekend was practically useless. Half the school was talking about what happened in Midnight, and the other half would know all the details by lunchtime. Good news sure travelled fast.

Marina tried to get Heather out of her foul mood during English by swapping their copies of _A Tale of Two Cities_ so that Heather had the one with snarky notes from a past student written in the margins. It might have worked for at least that class if Jem Tanner hadn't thrown a note on her desk with a stick figure drawing of Bobo hanging from a noose. Heather looked at the picture and balled her hands up so tightly that they started vibrating.

The paper burst into flames.

Heather shrieked and fell out of her chair. Before anyone could even try to stop it the fire leapt up another foot before snuffing out. It had burned straight through the desk. Jem's picture and anything between it and the floor was ash.

"Well," Marina said, "that's one way of getting rid of trash." She glared at Jem and he swallowed uncomfortably.

The principal did not approve of setting desks on fire. There wasn't any proof it was Heather's fault because magic, but she still got suspended for the rest of the week and it would have been longer if it hadn't been her first offense. She waited in the office while the secretary called Joe to pick her up, trying to unfuse the pages of her English book.

"It was an accident," Heather said as soon as she and Joe were outside the school.

Joe smiled softly. "I know it was, sweetheart, but we've got to talk to Fiji about this. You usually have more control."

" _We_ don't have to talk to Fiji," Heather said. "I'll talk to her. And this was a one-off, it won't happen again." Maybe her psychic power-up was throwing her magic out of whack. She still had to talk to Manfred.

As it turned out, Fiji and Manfred were in the same place when she got back to Midnight. Well, sort of. Fiji was inside Manfred's house and Manfred was out on the porch but it was still the same property. Heather got halfway to the house before a wave of magic nearly bowled her over.

"What's going on?" she shouted to Manfred.

"Exorcism," Manfred said at a normal voice level. "You're back early."

"Suspension," Heather said. She walked closer to Manfred in between pulses of strange magic. "How bad is it? The house, I mean."

Manfred looked through the window. "Pretty bad. I don't know if your dad told you, but the place has a bad case of demonic entity."

"Oh," Heather said. "No." Maybe that was what she was feeling. It definitely wasn't Fiji's magic. With her family she should probably know what the power of a demon felt like. Then again, _she_ was only half angel.

"Were you looking for me?" Manfred asked.

Heather nodded. "Yeah, psychic stuff. I set my desk on fire."

Manfred was surprised. "With magic or with your mind?"

"Same thing," Heather said. "But this was barely controlled magic. My empathy has been getting stronger and I thought there might be a connection."

"Huh," Manfred said. "Well, step into my office and we'll see what we can do." He opened the door to his RV and looked over at the house. "Fiji will say something if she needs help, right?"

Heather tuned into Fiji's emotions and felt a determination that fed a forced calm. She couldn't catch more than the barest hint of fear, a sort of blink-and-you'll-miss-it. "I'll let you know."

After a moment Manfred nodded and climbed inside the RV. Heather followed him, leaving the door half open behind her.

The inside of the mobile home smelled as blue as the outside, like incense and tobacco smoke. There was a curtain of beads separating the driver's and passenger seat from the living area, another curtain over the door to the bedroom, and a café booth-like eating area under the window. Every surface except the table was covered in colourful fabric, leather trunks of all shapes and sizes, ribbons, bottles or beads.

"This is Heather," Manfred said to the passenger seat. "Joe and Chuy's daughter. Heather, my grandmother Xylda haunts the RV."

Heather looked at the passenger seat and spoke to about where she guessed Xylda's head would be. "Nice to meet you, ma'am."

Manfred was quiet, listening to whatever his grandmother's ghost had to say. Then he chuckled. "She says to call her Xylda. And she likes your hair."

Heather couldn't help but smile. "Thank you, ma'am, Xylda."

"She needs our help," Manfred said, obviously talking to his grandmother. "Wasn't Aunt Agnes an empath?" He opened one of the trunks and rifled through it. "Yeah, she says it's getting stronger." He pulled a leather-bound book with a rose embossed on the front cover out of the trunk. "I don't know. Heather, how old are you?"

It took Heather a few seconds to realize that he was talking to her. "Oh, fifteen, almost sixteen." Her birthday was next week on the day of the full moon. (This was Midnight, keeping track of moon phases was something that they did.)

Manfred nodded as he paged through the book. Heather looked over his shoulder and saw pages covered in elegant handwriting interspersed with various sketches, mostly of plants.

"A what?" Manfred asked. "If it's sacred to our people then why haven't you told me about it before?"

"What's she saying?" Heather asked after Manfred had been quiet for a while.

"She says it's a girl thing," Manfred said.

Before Heather could ask what _that_ meant a wave of magic rocked the RV. Fiji was still calm but that didn't stop Heather from running out of the RV towards the house with Manfred half a step behind her.

Manfred pushed ahead of Heather and threw the door open. The house was acting out a scene from a horror movie with cupboard doors flapping open and closed on their own, the fireplace spewing bursts of flame, and every light flickering wildly. Fiji was the one point of calm as she sat cross-legged in the middle of the front room with her eyes closed chanting quietly in what was probably Latin. She held up her hands and motioned for them to be quiet. Manfred closed the door behind them and after a few more seconds of chanting the entire house just stopped.

Fiji let out a sigh and slowly opened her eyes. "This house is now inhospitable to the dead."

"Great," Manfred said. He held out a hand and helped Fiji to her feet. "Thanks."

"Anytime," Fiji said. She felt surprised. "Heather? Shouldn't you be in school?"

"I got suspended for setting a desk on fire," Heather said. Fiji looked at her and the surprise was upgraded to near panic. "It was an accident," Heather said quickly. "They were all talking about Bobo."

Fiji's anger was interrupted by Manfred drawing her attention, and Heather's, to a dreamcatcher-like structure hanging in the doorway to the next room. Heather couldn't remember what it was called, but it was dripping black goo, which could not be a good sign.

Heather screamed. Fiji was suddenly being dragged across the room by some invisible force that pinned her against the wall and wouldn't let go no matter what Heather and Manfred did. Heather caught a glimpse of the mirror across the room. The fiery hellscape and scaly, groping hand it reflected around Fiji made Heather's stomach twist. She pulled at Fiji's arm again but it remained stuck to the wall.

Heather's hands grew warm. Some instinct made her step back and raise her hands palms out in front of her. A bright white light burst from her hands and surrounded Fiji, who fell to the floor gasping.

The sound of breaking glass made Heather spin around. As the light faded she saw Manfred drop the fire poker that he'd used to smash the mirror and rush over to her and Fiji. Her head spun and wobbled as she tried to keep up.

"Are you guys okay?" Manfred asked.

"Yeah, uh huh." Fiji nodded.

Heather didn't know if she replied. The room was dimming in front of her eyes. Fiji was sitting on the floor and that looked like an awfully good place to be. Heather sat down in an ungainly tangle of limbs as her vision went black.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

When Heather woke up she was lying on her side on the couch in Fiji's house. Her left arm was hanging over the edge of the couch and her hand was clenched into a tight fist, resting against something warm with some sort of fabric spilling out between her fingers. She blinked slowly. Her head felt like it was filled with fog.

The fabric she was holding shifted slightly and Manfred's voice came from somewhere right by her ear. "I think she's awake. Heather?"

"Uh huh?" Heather said.

"Could you maybe let go of my shirt now?" Manfred asked.

Heather didn't even have the energy to blush. She loosened her fingers one by one until Manfred was able to free himself. He moved her arm onto the couch when it became clear that she wasn't going to do it herself.

"How are you feeling, sweetie?" Joe asked.

"Like I've been broken down into atoms and reassembled," Heather muttered. Then her eyes flew open. "I don't _feel_ anything."

She should have been getting Joe's worry about her, the entire town's worry about Bobo, but there's just nothing. The only emotions she could feel were her own.

"My powers are gone."

She tried to sit up and immediately felt dizzy. Joe helped her lie back down.

"They aren't gone," Fiji said from somewhere in the direction of the kitchen, "just...sleeping."

Heather heard footsteps and then Fiji was chivying Joe out of her way so she could hold a sachet of herbs under Heather's nose. Heather breathed in their scent and slowly the fog in her head began to clear.

"You take that in for a minute or so and then I've got some tea to help you get your energy back," Fiji said.

"'kay," Heather said. "What happened?"

Joe gently stroked her hair. "You take after your mother a lot more than we thought you would. You've got an angel's Light and you used it to protect Fiji. It took a lot out of you."

"Oh," Heather said. "So I'm like a guardian angel?"

" _Half_ guardian angel," Joe said. "You need to pace yourself. We don't want you to get hurt."

Heather slowly tried to sit up again. Thanks to Fiji's herbs her head didn't protest a totally ridiculous amount. She looked around. Manfred and Fiji were the only other people in the house, unless you counted Mr. Snuggly, who was napping in a fading patch of sunlight. Manfred was visible through the doorway to the front of the house, examining a shelf of wood carvings that Fiji had bought from Heather to sell in her store. Fiji put a mug of tea in Heather's hands and then went to talk to Manfred in a low voice.

Heather blew on the tea and took a sip. It was bitter, but not unpleasantly so.

"Do I need to practice using my Light, like magic?" Heather asked.

Joe frowned. "Well, it shouldn't draw too much attention but...Let's wait until you're feeling better and then talk with Chuy about it, okay?"

Heather nodded and drank her tea.

Fiji thanked Heather for protecting her from the demon, prescribed lots of sleep to deal with the magical burnout, and sent them on their way. Manfred got kicked out after buying a three-inch tall carved bear. Apparently there was spell that Fiji wanted to work on and she needed complete quiet.

"Sorry about your shirt," Heather said to Manfred as they crossed the street.

Manfred's shirt hadn't yet recovered from Heather hanging onto it for several hours, and probably never would.

Manfred shrugged. "Don't worry about it. Do you want me to keep looking for stuff for your psychic thing or...?"

Heather shook her head. "I want to see what happens when" if "my powers come back. Besides, Bobo is more important."

Manfred nodded and said goodnight to her and Joe before going back inside his house.

Joe looked at Heather and sighed.

"What?" Heather said.

"Nothing," Joe said.

Heather narrowed her eyes. "Dad."

"Nothing," Joe said again. "Nothing that you have to worry about."

"Fine," Heather grumbled after a few seconds. "But only because I'm too tired."

Joe put his arm around her and they walked home. Midnight was quiet.

Tense.

Waiting.

* * *

A/n: Yeah, this is more of a transition chapter than anything else. More excitement next time, I hope.

-Cynder2013


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Heather slept through most of the next three days. She missed Bobo coming home because a Sons of Lucifer jacket with Aubrey's hair on it was found downstream of where Aubrey's body had been found. It was the heaviest she had ever slept in her life and it freaked her out. Fiji said that it was normal to be tired after using magic your body wasn't used to, but losing three days for some pretty light shield seemed ridiculous.

Joe and Chuy corrected her, saying that her Light wasn't just "some pretty light" but an extension of her soul and using a bunch complicated of words that she couldn't understand in her half-asleep state. She was pretty sure Chuy had started speaking entirely in Latin at some point. But whatever. They weren't going to let her practice using her Light until they could be sure that what she had done to protect Fiji hadn't drawn any unwanted attention. Joe was pretty optimistic that it hadn't since she was only half angel and a guardian not a warrior, but Chuy wanted to be more careful.

By Friday she was actually awake. Marina said she wanted to celebrate by smuggling her out of the house, stealing a car, and going to a club, but Heather quickly got her to admit to the joke. They arranged to meet up after school at a bakery café in Davy that Marina liked and then Heather hung up the phone and tried to figure out what she was going to do for the next six hours. After trying and failing to salvage her fire-damaged English book again, she decided to walk down to the Inquiring Mind to visit Fiji.

Mr. Snuggly meowed loudly when the door opened. Heather crouched down to scratch him behind his ears. She was still only feeling her own emotions, so she didn't know if she and the cat were alone in the house. Fiji didn't usually go anywhere without locking her door, but she might have popped out for a quick visit with one of their neighbours.

"Fiji, you home?" Heather called.

"In the greenhouse," Fiji called back.

Heather gave Mr. Snuggly one last pat and went to join Fiji in the plant filled glass room on the side of the house. The witch was plucking leaves from a plant hanging from the ceiling and adding them to the bowlful of herbs she was carrying.

"Protection spells?" Heather asked after identifying a few of the herbs.

"Protection spell," Fiji said. "We had a visit from the Sons of Lucifer yesterday and I want to put a barrier around Midnight to keep the baddies out."

"Won't that make the cops suspicious?" Heather asked. The gang suddenly steering clear of Midnight seemed like something that would raise eyebrows. The cops were already looking at them too closely without them wondering how the Midnighters had gotten a dangerous biker gang to leave them alone.

"It's for their own good," Fiji said. "Lem and Olivia have already had to kill two of them and we don't need any more bodies around here."

She paused. "You didn't hear me say that."

Heather mimed zipping her lips shut. "Can I help?"

Fiji looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "How am I feeling about that?"

"Uhh...I don't know."

A staring contest that consisted of Fiji trying to look stern and Heather giving her puppy eyes commenced. Heather won.

"Fine, you can help," Fiji said, "but no magic."

Heather grinned.

* * *

Hermione frowned. The Arithmancy problem she was working seemed to be dancing across the parchment. She blinked a few times and when the numbers didn't stop wobbling she looked around for an explanation. The Weasley Twins weren't in the common room. Actually, no one was in the common room aside from her and Crookshanks, and the cat was asleep.

After a truly ridiculous amount of time considering that she was the smartest witch in Gryffindor House, possibly the smartest student in all of Hogwarts, Hermione looked at the clock.

"Sweet Merlin," she muttered. She didn't know how she had missed the clock chiming midnight, but it was now four hours past that. No wonder she couldn't concentrate.

She started putting her books away but stopped when she uncovered the book bound in black leather that hadn't left her side for a week. If she hadn't found it in the Hogwarts library she might have been worried that it was cursed like the Chamber of Secrets journal from last year. As usual, she flipped the book open to page 103 and read through the entry for Midnight, Texas. At the bottom of the page there was a sentence that she didn't remember seeing before. She stared at it.

 _If you're so interested, why don't you just go there?_

She blinked and read the sentence again. Was the book mocking her?

Another sentence appeared.

 _The bottom of your bag is not at all comfortable. I want to be back on my shelf._

Hermione shook her head and closed the book. She really needed to get more sleep.


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Heather knew her powers were back when Creek's fear made her fall out of bed. Her dads came running into her room before she could call for them and their worry wasn't enough to drown out what Creek was feeling.

"Something's wrong with Creek," Heather said as she fought to get free from the bedsheets that had tangled around her. "And Manfred," she added when she felt a spike of panic from her fellow psychic.

Joe left to go check on their neighbours while Chuy helped Heather get out of her bedsheet cocoon without strangling herself. After Heather was free, she and Chuy didn't have to wait long before Joe came back with a grim look on his face.

"Some of Lem's friends are in town," Joe said. "Vampires. Creek got jumped by one of them."

So, just another Saturday in Midnight? Was it a bad thing that attempted murder seemed to be becoming normal? Maybe it would clear up now that the Sons of Lucifer couldn't get into town.

"Is she hurt?" Chuy asked.

Joe shook his head. "A little shaken up, but our Creek's a strong one. She'll be fine."

Heather tucked her bare feet under the heavy throw on the couch. "How many are there?"

"Too many," Joe said. "These vampires aren't like Lem, Heather. They're dangerous."

"So's Uncle Lem," Heather said. "So's the Rev, and Fiji, and Olivia, and you."

She cut Joe and Chuy off before they could say anything. "I'm just making a point. Almost half of Midnight is dangerous. If you want to make me go stay with Fiji while there're vampires in town you're going to need a better reason. I'm not a little kid anymore."

Joe and Chuy looked at each other. They had the kind of silent conversation that only a couple with one thousand plus years of marriage under their belts could accomplish. Heather waited while their fear, love, worry, amusement, and stress went on a roller-coaster ride. Rasta came stumbling out of Joe and Chuy's bedroom, yawning and wagging his tail. Heather pulled the little Pekingese into her lap and stroked his fur. The dog had fallen back to sleep by the time Joe spoke.

"Lem's talking to the lead vampire, a guy called Zachariah. Everyone's meeting in the chapel in fifteen minutes to hear what he learns. Go get dressed so you can come with."

Heather handed Rasta off to Chuy and nearly ran to her bedroom. She put on the same clothes she'd been wearing that day, only pausing to decide if she should wear a clean tank top and choosing out of deference to Lem's and the Rev's enhanced senses to not put on clothing that stank of old sweat. The old plaid shirt of Joe's that she'd worn would be fine since she wasn't actually wearing it for most of the day, but anything with skin contact wouldn't be sweat free after a day in the Texas heat.

The wedding chapel was full of people talking over each other. Fiji was pacing the length of the aisle between the pews, trying to get a word in edgewise whenever she got to the front of the chapel where Olivia, Bobo, Lem, and Manfred were clustered. Madonna and Teacher were next to them, Grady somehow fast asleep in his father's arms. On the other side of the room from Madonna and Teacher, Shawn Lovell was arguing with his daughter while Connor stood behind him and rolled his eyes. The Rev was standing apart from everyone else, wringing his hands while he looked out of one of the windows. Emotions were running so high that Heather sat down on the floor by the door before she could pass out.

"Hey!" Connor shouted. "Everyone calm down, you're hurting Heather."

"Does the whole town know?" Heather muttered as all the adults went silent.

The moment it took for everyone whose emotions Heather could feel to try to calm themselves down was long enough that once the adults started talking again they were actually able to be rational instead of having a shouting match. For those who had just arrived, Lem went back over his discussion with Zachariah. According to Zach the bus full of vampires was just passing through. He promised that they wouldn't attack anyone in Midnight, but they were drinking from blood bags anyway so it was all moot point.

"Look, we can't let our guards down," Bobo said. "Zach may have promised Lem that his nest isn't drinking from anyone but that doesn't mean it's safe."

"Bobo's right," Manfred said. "Killing is in a vampire's nature. Zach could be telling the truth but they can still slip up."

"Vampires can't get into my house or Manfred's," Fiji said. "If anything happens that's where you should head."

"Don't vampires need an invite?" Creek asked.

Fiji shook her head. "Not this kind. Crosses and holy water won't work either."

"What does work?" Connor asked.

"Sunlight, wooden stakes, and silver," Fiji said. "But don't you even think about going after them. We don't need to cause trouble where there isn't any."

Connor nodded.

They all survived the vampires. Well, Chuy killed the vampires using a chunk of sunstone and a really big flashlight after they poisoned Lem and nearly killed Shawn Lovell. He had to fly to the top of the old hotel to do it, but the risk of exposing their family wasn't worth fighting against his nature as a guardian angel. Two of their own had already gotten hurt, Chuy wasn't going to let there be a third.

Midnight wasn't as lucky during the full moon. Somehow the Rev broke out of the chapel basement and killed the deputy sheriff from Davy before Lem and Olivia were able to recapture him. A vampire carrying a full grown male tiger down the street was not a scene Heather wanted to see again any time soon, especially since it came after she'd been practically catatonic for half an hour because empathy powers turned up to eleven plus violent death equals psychic overload.

And then there were the fungus demons. The less said about those the better.

After the invasion by the worst demons in the world, Fiji and Lem went into research mode. Zach and his vampire bus should not have come to Midnight. The Rev should not have broken out during a full moon. And, though Heather would argue that they shouldn't exist in the first place, the fungus demons should not have come to Midnight. The threat of being drained by Lem was real even for sentient fungi and the Rev had never broken out before.

Also, Lem was twitchy. Something was definitely wrong.


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

A succubus had killed two men just outside of Midnight. Because of course a few days of quiet meant there was bound to be a body sooner rather than later. Manfred had torched her with a homemade flamethrower after she'd hunted down Connor and Heather in the woods. Of course, Heather's argument that they wouldn't have been out there if the adults had just brought them along in the first place didn't go over well. In her defence, she'd just been thrown into a tree and really wasn't thinking clearly. She should have blamed Connor since sneaking out after them was his idea in the first place. They both got grounded, which meant they both had to work in their respective stores for a week. That annoyed Connor a lot more than it did Heather, probably because they were still scrubbing blood off the floor of the Gas n' Go and that tended to scare away customers.

Then there was the issue with Aubrey. Turns out that her name wasn't Aubrey Hamilton, it was Aubrey Hamilton Lowry. She had been married to a man named Peter Lowry, who was one of the Sons of Lucifer. Heather had heard Olivia muttering that Aubrey was even more trouble dead than alive, and Heather had to agree. Bobo had been so angry after learning that piece of news that Heather still had a headache a week later, though that could have been from getting thrown into a tree. If the Sons of Lucifer were able to get into Midnight then there would have been a lot more bodies to deal with.

Midnight was a mess.

Heather dumped the nail equipment into the jar full of sterilizing solution and sighed. Joe and Chuy were in the antiques store half of the business talking about the tattooing license Joe had been thinking about getting and how they'd have to reorganize the salon to fit a tattoo parlor in. Even that was abnormal. Joe had been talking about opening a tattoo parlor for years but Chuy had never warmed up to the idea until now. Heather had no idea what had made him change his mind, but it made her feel anxious.

She'd been staring at the jar for a ridiculous amount of time when she started sensing someone who was very worried coming into town. A few minutes later there was a knock on the door of the nail salon. Heather looked up and saw a corner of Marina's face through the small pane of glass in the door. She hurried over and opened the door. Marina practically threw herself at Heather and Heather gave her a hug.

"That bad?" Heather asked.

"Uh huh," Marina said.

"Want to stay here tonight?"

Marina nodded. "Yes, please."

Heather turned towards the antiques store. "Dads, can Marina sleep over?"

"Of course she can, sweetheart," Joe said. "Hello, Marina."

Marina gave a little wave. "Hello, Mr. Strong. Hi, Mr. Villegas."

Chuy nodded to Marina in greeting. "Just don't stay up too late. You've got school tomorrow."

Marina had run out of her house and chosen to grab her car keys rather than her cell phone. She used the landline (trust two several hundred years old fallen angels to still have a landline) to call her aunt in Dallas so that a family member who cared knew where she was and then she and Heather made popcorn for dinner and watched Chuy's _Firefly_ DVDs curled up on the couch under a blanket. They fell asleep like that. At some point Joe or Chuy turned the TV off, took away their empty bowls of popcorn, and tucked pillows behind their heads. Both girls slept straight through the night and they were both woken up in the morning by Rasta jumping on top of them and licking their face.

Heather squealed. "Rasta, get off!"

The small dog barked and jumped from Heather's lap to Marina's stomach. Marina yelped and then laughed as Rasta licked the tip of her nose. His job there done, Rasta leapt off the couch and bounded down the hall to wake up Joe and Chuy.

Marina stretched. "Ow, ow, ow. Remind me never to fall asleep on the couch again."

"Uh huh," Heather said. She was too busy carefully moving her stiff neck to be more eloquent. Once she was sure that she wasn't going to snap any muscles turning her head, she got up and started making coffee for her dads and Marina. Meanwhile, Marina cleaned up the remnants of their sleepover, folding the blanket and stacking it with the pillows on one end of the couch.

"I should head home," Marina said midway through her second helping of eggs and toast that Chuy had made for her.

Chuy frowned. "Are you sure? Joe or I can drive both of you to school."

"My school stuff is at home," Marina said. "I'll be fine. My parents will be passed out by now."

"I can go with you," Heather said. Her suggestion was met by worry and an explosion of "No way!"

"I can handle my parents," Marina insisted. "I don't want you getting hurt."

"But—" Heather looked at her dads, the warrior and guardian angels. She knew she could protect Marina if she had to, but she wouldn't be able to protect herself. Mr. Desoto was violent when drunk and even more violent when hungover. The odds of Marina getting out of the house unscathed if he wasn't passed out were slim to none and Heather or her dads being there would just give him more people to hit. If Mrs. Desoto was awake then the odds went down even further. She wasn't normally violent, but she would egg her husband on if she wasn't fighting with him. Heather was thankful that Marina had pawned her dad's gun at Midnight Pawn years ago.

Joe and Chuy's faces were grim. They both felt worried, angry, and something that Heather chose to call protective. They were doing their having an entire conversation just by looking at each other thing.

"Call your aunt before you leave. Actually, keep in touch with her until you get to school." Joe took his cell phone off the charger and handed it to Marina. "Heather will get it from you at school."

Marina nodded and pocketed the phone.

Heather cut class as soon as she saw that Marina wasn't in math. She handed in the homework that was due by the end of class and asked to go to the nurse's office for a stomach ache that she really wasn't faking. Mr. Weston handed her a hall pass and she went down the hall in the direction of the nurse's office. As soon as she was out of sight of the classroom she headed for the always unlocked janitor's closet, knocked on the door, and ducked inside as soon as there wasn't a knock in reply.

Joe picked up the phone on the second ring. "Marina isn't at school," Heather said before he could do more than say hello. "She should have been here before me."

"Don't panic yet." Joe said something else that Heather couldn't hear because he wasn't speaking into the phone. "Okay, Chuy's going to track down my cell phone. Where are you?"

Marina bit her lip. "Uh...Janitor's closet."

Joe sighed. "We'd better not get a call about you skipping class."

"I've got a hall pass." And Mr. Weston was one of the few teachers who acknowledged how the other kids treated her and Connor. He was lenient with them.

Joe didn't say anything for a moment. Heather heard murmuring in the background that was probably Chuy talking. Then the bell above the door of the shop rang and the murmuring became louder.

"I'm coming to get you," Joe said.

Heather felt her heartbeat speed up. "What? Why?"

Joe paused. "I'll tell you when I get there. Where are you supposed to be?"

"Nurse's office."

"Wait for me there." Joe hung up. Heather listened to the dial tone for a few seconds before ending the call and heading straight for the nurse's office. That stomach ache that she hadn't been faking before? It was now trying to burn a hole through her gut.

Joe was worried and afraid when he came to pick Heather up. Heather didn't even wait until they were out of the school to demand he tell her what was wrong. Joe's worry increased. He didn't say anything until they were in the car.

"Manfred and Olivia are going to check out the spot Chuy tracked my phone to. They're pretty sure of what they'll find." Joe took a deep breath. "Manfred talked to Marina's ghost."

Heather felt hot and cold all over. "Ghost?"

Joe nodded slowly. "I'm sorry, sweetheart."

Heather didn't reply. Tears ran down her cheeks.

Marina was dead.


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

By the time Heather and Joe got back to Midnight, all of their neighbours had gathered in the pawn shop, minus Connor, who was still at school. Heather sat in a rocking chair in an out of the way corner next to a cabinet of knickknacks and listened silently as the adults discussed the latest disaster.

Manfred and Olivia had found Marina's body less than a quarter of a mile from the Davy Highway, past a hill that hid her and her car from the road. Her ghost had shown Manfred how she had been run off the road. When her car crashed into a tree she'd panicked and gotten out to run. She'd barely made it ten feet before she was run over from behind. She hadn't seen the person who hit her.

"What about the car?" Creek asked.

Manfred shook his head. "I couldn't get a good look at it."

There was a spike of guilt from Shawn Lovell, but everyone was already feeling so guilty that it was barely a blip on Heather's radar. It probably didn't matter anyway.

"This ain't good for us." Bobo was sitting on a chair over by the register. He rested his forehead on his folded hands. "First Aubrey, then the deputy, now Marina?"

"It's drawing attention," Olivia said. "We can't afford to draw attention."

"Did you guys call the cops?" Joe asked.

Manfred had phoned the Sheriff, who had at some point come to trust the physic. The Sheriff had promised to try to keep Midnight out of the limelight for as long as possible, but with two murders being made public in as many months, reporters, family members, and conspiracy theorists were going to be clamoring for information.

The adults decided, some very begrudgingly, that they would have to find the killer. In Olivia's words, this wasn't a coincidence and they had to take care of it before it came back to bite them in the butt. Fiji had some spells she thought would help and left almost immediately to get started on them. Olivia was going to try to get information out of the police officers investigating Aubrey and Marina's murders to see how (not if) they were connected and then she and Lem would sweep the area after sundown to look for their own evidence. Manfred was going to keep working on getting information out of Marina and Aubrey's ghosts. The rest of the Midnighters would be keeping themselves and the town safe.

Heather sat in her room for the rest of the afternoon, staring at an unworked piece of wood. Her mind was going in circles, mostly in the vein of what ifs. What if she'd insisted that Marine go to school with her? What if they hadn't listened when she said she'd be fine? Marine could have been alive now if they only did something differently.

Marina's aunt called their landline in a panic around the time when school ended. Chuy updated her on what had happened and then spent ten minutes talking her down from what sounded like putting a curse on everyone in Davy who drove. Heather hadn't known that Marina's aunt was a witch. Maybe she was just friends with one.

Joe stuck his head into Heather's room a few minutes after he and Chuy finished eating dinner. "Hey."

Heather didn't say anything.

"I'm going to take Rasta for a walk," Joe continued. "Do you want to come with?"

Heather shook her head.

"Okay. Chuy's checking in with Fiji if you need him." Joe closed the door behind him. He was worried again, worried still. Heather couldn't blame him.

After another fifteen minutes of staring, Heather heard a knock at the door. It was Connor. He was panicked. Heather got up and hurried to the door, wrenching it open so quickly that she nearly hit herself in the face with it.

"Connor? Is something wrong?"

Connor grimaced and shrugged. "Well..."

He moved suddenly and everything went black.

When Heather came to her head was throbbing. It took her a few seconds to feel that Connor and Creek were with her and a few more to realize that she was lying on the floor of a moving vehicle underneath a tarp that smelled like wet dog with her hands tied behind her back with very scratchy twine.

"...week ago. Why?" Creek asked.

"She was poking around," Connor said. "Causing trouble. None of you could see it. I had to do something. And it was fun."

"You are sick." Creek sounded like she was speaking through her teeth.

"This is me, Creek. You don't like it, too bad. You're my sister. You don't get to leave me in the dust."

"Bet you killed Gizmo too." Creek's voice cracked.

Connor scoffed. "You always cared about that dog more than me."

Creek was angry, but mostly she was scared. Connor on the other hand was feeling something far more complex, like a mixture of happiness, satisfaction and lust. Heather didn't want to jump into the middle of that with a probable concussion, but they were already far from Midnight and getting further away every second. If Creek wasn't doing anything to stop Connor then she must have been in some kind of danger.

Heather closed her eyes. She tried to summon the warmth she'd felt when she used her Light to protect Fiji. She reminded herself over and over that Creek was in danger, but nothing happened. She tried again. In the back of her mind she started going over spells that might be able to help.

Just before she could decide to try throwing Connor through the windshield with her malfunctioning flight spell, Heather sensed something above them that made her feel like crying with relief. A split second later, Connor let out a yell and the vehicle came to a sudden stop. There was the sound of one of the doors opening and a series of thuds as Connor ran away from the road.

"Creek?" Heather said quietly.

"Oh my god!" Creek pulled the tarp off of Heather and looked down at her from the front seat of the Lovell's truck. "Are you hurt?"

"Just my head." Heather started to sit up but Creek stopped her.

"No, don't move. Joe! Joe, Heather's here!"

The door nearest to Heather's head opened. Joe crouched down so that he was level with her. "You're okay, I got you."

"Her wrists are tied together," Creek said.

"I see." Joe helped Heather out of the truck and somehow got her hands freed while she was leaning against him so she wouldn't fall down. "Let's get you home."


	13. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Hermione had a plan, she just didn't know if she should go through with it. Sirius Black had broken into Hogwarts right under Dumbledore's nose. He had traumatized the Fat Lady and she wasn't even real in the metaphysical sense. For her plan to work she would have to leave Hogwarts at Christmas but with Harry in danger she didn't like the idea of leaving him and Ron alone. The amount of trouble they would likely get into without her was a truly worrying prospect. And the worst part was that she could put it off until their next break but she didn't _want_ to.

She couldn't go to the library for this. It seemed to be a psychology problem and the Hogwarts library was severely lacking in psychology books. Instead, she went to her friends. Harry leaned nearly out of his chair as she explained her plan and Ron listened with wide eyes.

"Blimey!" Ron said when she was finished. "That's just...Wow. That potion sounds more complicated than Polyjuice. Good on you."

"Well, it didn't take nearly as long to stew," Hermione demurred. "But what do you think I should do? I don't want to leave you two alone this Christmas."

"You have to go!" Half of the common room turned to look at Harry after he shouted this. He blushed and continued more quietly. "She's your family. You should go."

Ron nodded. "What he said. Don't worry about us."

Hermione gave a token protest that the boys argued vehemently against and it was decided. She started a letter to her parents that night. Twelve letters back and forth later and she had them convinced. They would be going to Texas for their Christmas holiday.

She almost regretted it when she found out it was a ten hour flight. It wasn't just flying on brooms that she wasn't found of. She managed it though and they touched down in Dallas with just enough time to get through customs and make it to their hotel before Hermione fell asleep. It wasn't even noon in Dallas, but Hermione felt like she'd been awake forever. She wasn't able to sleep on the plane.

They didn't get to Midnight until day four, after the Grangers had torn through every museum and art gallery in the city that any of them had the slightest interest in. Hermione didn't rush her parents. Robert and Edith Granger were not stupid. They would know something was up if Hermione immediately wanted to go to a town that didn't even appear on a map.

One museum gave Hermione an easy excuse for going to Midnight. They had pamphlets at the front desk for other tourist attractions. One of them was of "hidden gems" and talked about Midnight Pawn and the Inquiring Mind among other things. Both shops were in Midnight and the Inquiring Mind happened to be a so-called "witchcraft" shop.

"It would be fascinating to learn about the Muggle perspective on magic," Hermione said. "Professor Burbage won't be teaching it until after Easter."

"Well, it would be good for you to get ahead in your schoolwork." Robert studied the pamphlet. "We'll have to rent a car."

The Inquiring Mind was empty when they arrived. Hermione got distracted and spent the next two hours talking to Fiji, the woman who owned the shop, about magic, being very careful not to say anything that could reveal that she was a real witch. She didn't realize how much time had passed until her stomach growled loudly, interrupting Fiji in the middle of a sentence.

"The Home Cookin's the only place to eat in Midnight," Fiji told them when Edith asked if she knew any good places for lunch. "It's just down the road, past the old hotel. Madonna's food is fantastic. You won't regret going there."

"That sounds good to me," Robert said. "Edith, Hermione, let's go."

Hermione followed her parents outside after a polite goodbye to Fiji. The street was empty except for them and a person with faded blue hair walking a tiny dog towards them. As they got closer Hermione realized that, despite the oversized old plaid shirt, the dog-walker was a girl who didn't look much older than she was. Then she saw that the roots of the girl's hair were blonde.

The girl looked up. Despite the years, Hermione recognized her face immediately. "Paulina!"

Paulina, who had looked back down at her feet before Hermione spoke, made her dog stop short and stared at Hermione. Their parents were staring at Hermione too.

"Hermione, dear," Robert said, "do you know this girl?"

"I didn't want to tell you because you'd seemed to have moved on and I didn't want to get your hopes up," Hermione said, very quickly.

Edith frowned delicately. "What are you taking about?"

Hermione couldn't stop the smile that spread across her face. "I found my sister."

A small gasp escaped from Edith's lips. She and Robert turned to Paulina, studying her intently. Paulina was frozen in place even with her dog tugging at its leash.

"Well, this is a surprise. Where have you been all this time?" Robert took a step closer to Paulina.

The air snapped. That was the only way Hermione could think to describe what she felt before her father was thrown across the road and slammed into the front of Midnight Pawn. Edith and Hermione screamed. Paulina stood with her hand raised in front of her, wind whipping at her clothes and hair. Everywhere else the air was still.

A man came running out of the pawn shop, followed quickly by a man and a woman emerging from the house next to the shop. In fact, doors were opening all up and down the street. It was so quiet in Midnight that everyone there must have heard them scream.

The man from the pawn shop crouched down next to Warren and seemed to be checking for a pulse. "He's alive," he told his neighbours. "Knocked right out though."

The second man looked across the street and quickly focused on Hermione, Edith and Paulina. "Heather!" He crossed the street and stopped at Paulina's side. "Hey, you got to calm down, okay? You're alright. We're all alright."

The wind died. Paulina let out a sob and buried her face in the man's shirt. He hugged her while over her head his eyes darted from Hermione and Edith to their surroundings and back again.

"What happened?" Fiji ran over to them. "Manfred?"

The man, Manfred, shook his head. "I don't know."

Fiji turned to Hermione and Edith. Before she could say anything there was a series of loud, almost simultaneous cracks and then they were surrounded by five wizards in uniform robes standing ready with their wands drawn.

"Nobody move!" one of the wizards shouted. "You are under arrest for illegally entering America and breaking the International Statute of Secrecy!"

Hermione's heart dropped into her stomach.

* * *

A/n: I changed Hermione's parents' names several times while writing this chapter. If you find anywhere where they aren't Robert and Edith would you please let me know? And sorry to people who were alerted the first time this chapter was posted, I took it down to change their names again.

-Cynder2013


	14. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Most of the American wizards—Aurors, Hermione supposed—advanced on Hermione, Edith, Paulina, Fiji and Manfred. Two of them started across the street to Robert and the other man and woman.

"Now hold on just a minute," Fiji exclaimed. "What are you talking about?"

"Who are you people?" Manfred asked.

"We're here for Hermione Jean Granger," the Auror who had ordered them not to move said. "You aren't important."

Fiji looked furious. "Excuse me?"

The Aurors ignored her.

A tall, dark-haired witch looked between Hermione and Paulina. "Which one of you is Hermione Jean Granger? I would advise you not to lie."

Hermione couldn't speak through the lump in her throat. She managed a sound somewhere between a whimper and a whine. Paulina didn't say anything at all. She didn't even look to see what was going on.

"Hey!" a woman said. Hermione hadn't even seen the tall, black clad blonde come out onto the street. She was standing in front of the pawn shop with her arms crossed. The two Aurors who'd headed towards the pawn shop had stopped in the middle of the street, looking at each other.

"What?" the Auror who'd told Fiji she didn't matter, a grumpy-looking, grizzled wizard, snapped.

"Lemuel says that as per the sixteen ninety-four Witches and Shamans' Treaty, the Magical Congress of the United States of America has no jurisdiction in Midnight," the blond woman said.

The wizard's frown deepened. He started to say something but was interrupted by one of the younger-looking Aurors.

"The vampire Lemuel?" she squeaked. "The soul-eater?"

Hermione immediately pictured a cross between a vampire and the dementors all current Hogwarts students were far too familiar with. She shivered.

The blonde woman tilted her head. "That's the one."

The dark-haired witch sneered. "I suppose you're going to tell us you're a shaman?" Her mouth twisted around the word 'shaman' like it was something foul.

"Manfred is from a long line of shamans," Fiji said.

The dark-haired witch barely even looked at Manfred before laughing derisively. "I highly doubt that."

Fiji raised her voice. "And I am from a very long line of powerful witches. Would you like a demonstration?" Her eyes seemed to be glowing red and Hermione could feel the air around Fiji heating up from where she was standing.

"That won't be necessary." The older wizard took a tiny step back, away from Fiji. "The International Statute of Secrecy obviously hasn't been broken. I assume everyone in Midnight is aware of magic?"

"Very," the blonde woman said.

The older wizard nodded. "Then there's just the issue of illegal entry into the United States. If Miss Granger would come with us..." He looked at Paulina, having apparently decided that she was Hermione. Maybe that was because she had blue hair.

The blonde woman's eyes narrowed. "You're not taking _Heather_. No one here is going with you."

"But—" The wizard was cut off by the arrival of three more men who Hermione hadn't noticed coming down the street towards them. One looked like some sort of priest dressed in a black and white suit. The other two looked more like carpenters in jeans and jumpers, one brown-haired and blue-eyed and the other with black hair and warm brown eyes.

"What's going on here?" the blue-eyed carpenter asked. "Manfred?

"Heather's fine," Manfred said. "These guys just want to arrest someone and won't take no for an answer."

"We—" the older, probably in charge, wizard tried to say. This time the blond woman cut him off.

"No. Jurisdiction. In. Midnight." She glared at the lead Auror. "Get lost."

The dark-haired witch scowled and drew back her wand. Before she could get out a spell, her wand flew from her hand and was caught by Fiji.

"Bad move, lady." Fiji gestured furiously with the witch's wand as she spoke, sending sparks blasting out of its tip. "We have killed a horde of vampires, a succubus, and far too much sentient fungi. You do not want to piss us off."

"Sentient fungi?" Hermione blurted out the question before the imprudence of drawing attention to herself really got through her head. Luckily for her the Aurors were paying more attention to the Muggle witch waving a wand around than anything else.

"Give me back my wand, no-maj!" The dark-haired witch was red in the face and looking more and more like she was about to explode any second.

"What did you call her?" the man from the pawn shop demanded. He started to cross the street and glared at the two Aurors who got in his way.

The other carpenter stepped between Fiji and the dark-haired witch. "Look, let's all just try to calm down. There's no reason to start something that we'll regret." He looked at his neighbours.

The blonde woman let out a harsh sigh. "I won't start anything if they don't."

The lead Auror continued to look grumpy, but he agreed. "Miss Granger will be immune to justice as long as she is in Midnight. I would advise her not to perform any more magic. Other Aurors won't be as nice as us." He vanished with a loud crack and the other Aurors quickly followed, though the dark-haired woman was only able to disappear after getting her wand back from Fiji with a lot of glaring on both sides.

Once the Aurors were gone, Edith unfroze and ran across the street to where Robert had landed, pulling Hermione along with her. She dropped to her knees next to her husband, who was lying very, very still on the sandy ground. "Robert? Robert! Someone call an ambulance!" She looked at the woman who'd come outside with Manfred.

The woman crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. "Maybe you could explain what just happened first?"

The pawn shop man came over to them. "Joe and I will take him to the hospital, Missus Granger. You'd better stay here with your girl so those magic folk can't complain. We'll call you when we get there."

Edith profusely thanked the man, who was called Bobo. He and Joe, the blue-eyed carpenter, lifted Robert into Bobo's car. Manfred went over to them and whispered something to Joe, who nodded before they drove off.

The remaining Midnight residents were huddled together across the street. Fiji and the blond women were talking to the priest and the remaining carpenter in hushed voices that Hermione couldn't hear. Paulina was standing a little further away over by the porch of the Inquiring Mind, whispering with the woman from the house next to the pawn shop. The little dog's leash had been handed over to the carpenter. Manfred crossed the street to join them and, lacking many other options, Edith and Hermione followed. The conversations ended as they approached.

"Well," Fiji said after a few moments of awkward silence, "I don't know about the rest of you, but I could go for some of Madonna's pie. She said it was blackberry today."


	15. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

The pie was good. Heather was eating her second piece and thinking about a third. She was actually hungry. It was a strange feeling. Maybe it was because of the magic she'd done, or maybe it was because she'd been terrified enough to do magic reflexively.

She was sitting between Chuy and Manfred at the Midnighter's table, facing out towards the main room of the Home Cookin' so she could see the door. Fiji was seated across from her, turning around every so often to look at Hermione and Edith, who were sitting at their own table not too far away. Heather tried not to look up. She didn't want to see them, but she felt it every time Fiji, or anyone else for that matter, turned to look. Fiji worried, Manfred worried, Chuy worried, the Rev worried, Olivia and Creek were angry.

Heather didn't look up. She didn't pay attention to the conversation going on around her. She sat at the table and ate her pie. Emotions filled up her head and left her feeling all floaty and dizzy. She didn't try to keep them out.

Fiji's voice cut through the fog of feelings in her brain. "Heather? Do you know them, Hermione and her parents?"

Heather nodded. Fiji waited for a moment before asking, "Could you tell us how?"

Heather didn't say anything.

"I'm guessing not in a good way," Olivia said. "She threw the dad into a building."

Robert Granger was not a dad. He didn't deserve the title.

Heather turned her head to look at Creek with big, pleading eyes. Creek already knew the answer to Fiji's question. Heather had told her when Manfred had gone to talk to Joe and Creek had been trying to ground her in his place. Creek had lots of practice taking care of a psychic since she'd moved in with Manfred after her dad left town more than two months ago. Getting Heather to talk had helped, but now Heather didn't want to say what she'd already said. It made it feel too real to have it come out of her mouth. She'd make it up to Creek later.

"The Grangers were Heather's foster parents," Creek said. A muscle in her jaw twitched. "Mr. Granger hurt her."

Olivia's anger spiked. Fiji and Chuy were quick to join her.

"Your arm," Chuy said. "When you got here, your arm was broken."

Heather nodded without looking Chuy or anyone else in the eyes. She twisted her fingers in the bottom of Joe's old shirt that she was wearing. The Rev let out a growl.

Manfred swallowed down some of his fear. "Mr. Granger is being haunted by a woman he murdered. I saw her, she talked to me."

Olivia put her hands on the table and stood up. "I'm gonna kill him."

"Sit down," Fiji said. She tugged at Olivia's arm until Olivia took her seat. "Haven't enough people died lately?"

Heather would say too many. Aubrey. Marina. Conner (though he'd killed Aubrey and Marina, so maybe his death was exactly enough).

"We can't do nothing!" Creek exclaimed. She was loud enough that most of them flinched, probably expecting Hermione and Edith to turn around and look into the Midnighter's room. They relaxed a little when nothing happened.

"Fiji's right," Chuy said slowly. "So's Creek." He looked at Heather before turning back to the rest of the table. "Let me and Joe talk about this before we all make a decision. I assume he knows about the ghost?"

Manfred nodded. "I told him. What about those Aura cop people?"

"Aurors," Olivia said. "According to Lem, they're not allowed in Midnight without permission from you and Fiji. It's in that Witches and Shamans' Treaty."

Manfred muttered something about not actually being a shaman. Several versions of "Shut up, that doesn't matter right now" and "I bet there's a loophole for that" were thrown at him across the table.

"Does Lem have a copy?" Creek asked. "If that's the only thing keeping those guys out we need to know what's in it."

Olivia said that she'd check with Lem when he was easier to wake up. "What about this murdered woman?" She looked at Manfred. "Did she tell you who she was?"

Manfred shook his head. His fear started climbing again. Heather stopped tugging at her shirt and touched Manfred's arm with her fingertips. When Manfred looked at her she tried to think of something reassuring to say but ended up with just a small smile crossing her face that she hoped said "Don't worry, don't be afraid. We're here," or something like that. Words were difficult lately.

Olivia cleared her throat. She spoke gently. "Heather, do you know who the woman could be?"

Heather quickly shook her head. She didn't know anything about Robert Granger killing anyone. Really, she didn't. But...

The Grangers had a nice house. It was gigantic, to Heather. She'd been only ten when she left that place for the last time, so maybe it had just seemed big to her tiny self. The walls and floors had always been clean, the garden was lovely, and Robert and Edith had encouraged reading of any of the hundreds of books shelved in every room.

Heather hated every part of that house. Hated, and feared. But the place that she had hated most of all wasn't the basement or her bedroom; it was the concrete deck at the back of the house. There was no logical reason for it that she could remember, just a bad feeling, especially when Robert was around. Of course, feelings were logical now that she knew she was an empath.

"Ask her about the deck," Heather said quietly.

The adults had started talking again. Fiji was in the middle of explaining intention spells while Olivia and Creek argued for something stronger. At first, it seemed like no one had heard Heather speak. Then Manfred gave a nod that didn't correspond with the conversation. "Deck, got it."

Message delivered, Heather went back to eating her pie.

* * *

Hermione really wanted to go to the library. That was what she did whenever she came across something she didn't understand. Unfortunately, she was an ocean away from Hogwarts. She didn't think that the Inquiring Mind would have books on American wizard law. She hadn't seen any, at least.

She and her mother had eaten their meal in almost total silence. The food really was fantastic—almost as good as Molly Weasley's cooking—but Hermione knew that wasn't why they hadn't said more than five words to each other since sitting down. Edith had her thinking look on her face, lips pursed, eyebrows furrowed, and eyes narrowed behind her wire-rimmed glasses. Hermione was in a similar state, though without the exaggerated facial expressions.

"I think we need to give her time," Edith said. "It must be a shock for...Paulina to have us here."

Hermione put down her fork. "Do you remember if she ever did accidental magic when she was with us? I've read that some children don't do accidental magic before they get their wands, but it's supposed to be very rare."

Before Edith could answer there were footsteps behind Hermione. Hermione turned around in her seat and watched as Fiji came over to their table with a cell phone in her hand.

"It's for you." Fiji held the phone out to Edith.

Edith thanked her and took the phone. She began speaking with whoever was on the other end, probably Bobo, as Fiji walked back into the room at the back of the diner where Paulina and all of the locals were sitting. The second Hermione turned away from the room there were several screams and Fiji came running back out.

"Hermione? There's a...bird with a letter for you," Fiji said.

"An owl?" Hermione asked. Maybe the American Ministry was sending her an official warning, like Harry had gotten last summer. That was more likely than an owl from someone back home reaching her here.

Fiji shook her head. She looked absolutely bewildered. Maybe they didn't use owls in America.

"It's...a...bird." Fiji motioned for Hermione to follow her. Edith gave Hermione a nod when Hermione waved to get her attention, so Hermione got up and followed Fiji into the other room. She'd barely gotten through the door before she saw the bird perched on the back of the chair at the head of the large round table. It was fairly easy thing to do as the bird was bright orange, red, yellow, and gold and the size of a large swan.

Hermione's eyes widened. "Fawkes!"


End file.
